Scratch Beer 14 - 2008 | Tröegs Brewing Company

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Notes / Commercial Description:
Scratch #14-2008 is our interpretation of a farmhouse ale—a once near-extinct winter-brewed (and summer–imbibed) Belgian ale. celebratory brew starts with a black pepper and ginger nose. The nicely carbonated brew releases a honey-malt flavor that gives way to a tart crisp finish that masks the elevated ABV. We use a blended yeast strain (Saison Dupont & Le Chouffe) to create the traditional peppery, spicy earthy flavors of the saison. Slight hints of ginger also come through in the finish. Drink it ‘til the wedding bells chime!

A: The beer pours a clear golden orange color with a nice big white head that clings to the glass.

S: A mild funkiness to the nose with a big time floral aroma. A touch of honey on the nose with some mild grass and earth to it as well. I get a little bit of spice, particularly white pepper and some light fruits.

T: Sweet fruits, lots of pears and apples, with a little bit of white grape. Some white pepper notes, a little bit of coriander, orange zest, and an overall earthy and grassy aroma. Plenty of yeast and some pale, bready malts.

M: Medium in body with a fairly high level of carbonation.

O: A really nice surprise. This beer is fantastic and easily one of the better Scratch series beers I've had.

A - Pours a hazy golden yellow color with 3 fingers of whipped cream like white head, with very good staying power...wants to last forever. Takes a couple of pours with time for the head to die down to get the whole bottle into the glass. Neverending supply of bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. Very active beer.

S - Yeasty and very fruity...combination of oranges, apples, lemons, tangerines. A touch tart and tangy on the nose. Very potent aromas - can smell them from several feet away. This might be the best smelling saison I've ever experienced. Really phenomenal.

T - Taste goes right along with the aroma. Tons of fruits, especially the orange and lemon coming thru. On top of that, there is a really good yeasty spiciness in there. A little bit of bready malt in the background, but this is largely masked by the intense fruit and spice character. Not quite as impressive as the aroma, but a very good interpretation of the style.

M - Fairly thin in body with tona of carbonation. The carbonation makes this very lively and prickly on the tongue and carries the fruit and spiciness to all corners of the mouth.

D - Man, I wish this was a 22oz bottle, or I had a couple more of these stashed away. This is a very easy drinker on its own and would be perfect with a nice meal. The saison style is one of my favorites and this one has to be up there as one of the best I've had. Anybody have more of this? Any chance of this becoming a regular offering from Troegs? Probably no on both...oh well. Glad I at least got to try it.

Taste: Opens with a sweet and fruity flavor, redolent of candi sugar, bananas, clove, white pepper and a hint of cardamom; after the swallow, both the sweet and spicy flavors step it up a notch to the finish

Mouthfeel: Medium body with prickly and potent carbonation

Drinkability: Too sweet and not enough herbaciousness to be a top drawer saison, to my palate; it is more like a Belgian Golden

A: Bright, somewhat hazy lemon-yellow body. Nice, fluffy white head. Great retention and dense lacing. (Lots of sediment in the bottle as this has some age on it, but I successfully kept the vast majority out of the pour).

S: Soft lemon zest. Light spice of clove and coriander. Draws much from a belgian strong pale with some banana and yeast as well. Not particularly "farmhousey."

T: More of the same. Perhaps a bolder citrus profile that carries over a nice spice undercurrent. Again, this is more on the belgian strong pale end of the spectrum.

M: Effervesecent and light bodied. A really nice crisp finish that has some bite to it. Refreshing as all hell.

D: Top notch. I docked it some points in the smell/taste categories as it was lacking some funk, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying this nicely crafted brew. Now if only Troegs would brew a saison regularly.

12 oz. bottle with a plain white label with a big gray "S" in the middle and the series number and brewed year at the top. Scratch 14 was brewed in late 2008. Served in a Troegs pint glass.

This Scratch beer poured a pale Canary yellow with some bright sun yellow highlights along the sides. As you can tell, this was a very yellow beer. Don't pour the whole bottle into the glass because there is alot of yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Sitting on top of this bright yellow beer was a 1+ inch sized fluffy cotton white head of foam. It had the best retention. The head of foam only receded when beer was taken out of the glass. When it recede, it left behind a huge amount of sticky streaks of white lace.

14 had a nice little potent aroma to it. It just filled to the edge with rich tart lemon, ripe banana, cloves, a whiff of coriander, a hint of wild flowers, and then the aroma finishes up with a touch of yeast, tart grapefruit, and black licorice. I don't know where that black licorice came from, but it made for a nice treat.

The taste was just as good as the kick ass aroma. The two flavors that flexed their muscles were the ripe banana and the cloves. When those 2 flavors had enough, they let through some sweet grapefruit, lemon peel, coriander, a dash of black pepper, a mix of citrus and exotic fruits, and a hint of malted wheat. This Saison was just packed with great citrus flavors.

This was an easy drinking light bodied beer with a full flavored aftertaste of cloves, ripe banana, malted wheat, coriander, and a hint of yeast.

Appearance: Poured with a large bubbly head that turned creamy and smooth as it dissipated. Dissipated to a 1cm layer head that remained throughout the whole glass leaving a some lacing. The beer is a pretty yellow golden color and became very cloudy and murky looking when I got the yeast in my glass.

Smell: Sweet fruit similar to apples and pears with a hint of banana, spiciness from the yeast, tangy malt, and some honey

Poured into a tulip, the beer is very light golden, straw colored. It's effervescent with a signature gigantic foamy saison head. It recedes slowly leaving a little lacing.

The aroma is peppery phenols with some light citrus in the form of apples, lemons, and oranges. A low level of floral hops is evident. The malt is pretty light beneath the other aromas and the alcohol is hidden.

The flavor is peppery with orange and lemon. The malt character is soft beneatch the fruit. The hops are low but noticeable, imparting earthiness to the flavor. There's a hint of tartness. The finish is spicy, fruity, and dry. The alcohol is well masked throughout.

Poured this into my Troubador tulip. A huge head crests over the rim of the glass - I cut the top off with my fork. Head quick to retreat to a lively layer of bubbles on top. This one is straw yellow and hazy with visible yeast.

The aroma is lightly hoppy with some funky citric notes. Hit s the mouth with a blast of carbonation. A bit tart, a bit hoppy, a bit musty - tongue continues to fizzle. Finishes dry and lemony with a very slight residual bitterness - black pepper and lemongrass.

The medium body on this one really helps carry all that flavor. Quite the enjoyable Saison for someone who loves them...

Fianlly getting around to reviewing this one. Poured from a cellar temperature 12 ounce bottle into my Oerbier tulip glass. After stirring up the yummies in the bottom of the bottle, appears a cloudy, milky bright yellow color with about two fingers of foamy off white head. Smells and tastes of spicy, peppery yeast, hint of ginger,tart green apples, lemon, bubble gum, plastic band aids, and hay. Medium bodied, dry and slightly alcoholic with medium to moderate carbonation. Delicious stuff. Hope it becomes part of Tröegs regular rotation of seasonals.

Got this awhile ago in a trade with MikeReaser. Thanks for the opportunity to try this Mike! 12 oz bottle poured into my snifter.

A- Nearly opaque, cloudy straw yellow body that pours with a hefty 2-3 finger foamy white head. Head has great retention and plenty of lacing left all the way down the glass. Cloudiness is very thick and dynamic with a TON of yeast sediment whirling about at the bottom of the glass.

S- Lots of Spicy and yeasty scents in the nose. Behind this is apples and lemon and a slight bready sweetness.

T- Apple and pear flavors are upfront and are accented by a peppery spice. In the background is a soft, bready yeast. The finish gets a bit spicy as floral hop flavors and bitterness come through along with the spices intensifying. What is left to linger is a hint of sweet apple and remnants of sweet bready yeast.

M-Medium to high carbonation and a full. smooth, yeasty body.

D- This is a very good beer and another great offering from Troegs-who really has yet to disappoint me. Wish this were offered more often.

Got this from a friend recently - I've never had one of Troegs' scratch beers before and I eagerly anticipated this! At first, I thought it was a Belgian White because of the vast amount of sediment at the bottom. Only after a few tastes did I realize that there was more going on here, which was not necessarily a bad thing.

This has the pour of a good Belgian beer - light, foamy, and cloudy. Need I say again that there's a ton of solids floating at the bottom of this? The taste is pretty strong, once ya get past the usual straw, clover, and banana found in Belgian beers. There's some bubble gum, "band-aid", and of course, alcohol. This turned out to be weaker than I thought it would be once I saw the ABV%, but it didn't detract from the taste at all; nor from the strong, sour aftertaste.

It's too bad these aren't available commercially around here. I'd love to to try the others given that Troegs succeeds at any style they attempt. While the Nugget Nectar and the Oatmeal Stout will always hold a special place in my life, this beer is not forgettable either. I'm glad I was able to try this!